Even if you don’t remember who walked away with an Oscar last year, we’d be shocked if you forgot about Pharrell’s amazing hat. Not only was it great to see him finally embrace his inner Dudley Do-Right, but it also made for one of the most inspired marketing opportunities of the year thanks to some help from Arby’s. After his performance of “Happy” at the Oscars, Arby’s bought the Grammy-winner’s hat for $44,100 before donating all the proceeds to charity. Seeing as how their Twitter account garnered more than 6,100 retweets and 4,000 favorites in the process, we’d say it was a win-win situation for all involved.

Then there was Samsung with their star-studded selfie to end all selfies. Sure, they spent upwards of $20 million on ad space during the big event, but with some help from Ellen DeGeneres, her A-list posse, and Bradley Cooper’s long arms, the stunt became Samsung’s promotional winner, getting them nearly 3 million retweets by the following afternoon and, at one point, roughly 900 mentions per minute on social media. Such is the power of Ellen.

Lastly, there was Matthew McConnaughey’s well-deserved Best Actor win for Dallas Buyer’s Club and his subsequent acceptance speech that, in true McConnaughey form, segued into a story about his Miller Lite-loving dad. Not one to let the McConnaissance pass them by, the brass at Miller Lite seized the opportunity with this well-timed keeper of a tweet:

https://twitter.com/MillerLite/status/440350038934298624
Over 2,000 retweets and a slew of followers later, and we’d say that move was alright, alright, alright (sorry, we had to).

While we still don’t know what’s in store for Sunday, it ought to be a night for the books if companies like these keep raising the bar. What are you looking forward to at the Oscars this year?